1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a diagnosis assisting apparatus, computer program, and method of assisting diagnosis of a tubular tissue through visualization of three-dimensional image data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Technologies for analyzing volume data of an object obtained by CT or the like through CPR method have been developed in order to observe a tubular tissue, such as a blood vessel, intestine, or bronchus as described, for example, in A. Kanitsar et al., “CPR-curved planar reformation”, visualization 2002, VIS2002, IEEE Vol. 1, Issue 1-1 November 2002, pp. 37-44 (Non-patent Document 1). CPR method is a technique in which a curved surface passing the centerline of a tubular tissue is specified based on three-dimensional volume data and the specified curved surface is generated as a two-dimensional image. This allows a cross-section of the tubular tissue in the longitudinal direction to be displayed in one screen.
It is customary that, in CPR method, only a CPR image or a pair of CPR image and cross-sectional image orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of a tubular tissue represented by the CPR image is displayed for the observation of the tubular tissue.
For a meandering tubular tissue, such as a blood vessel and the like, however, such display causes the longitudinal section of the tubular tissue represented by the CPR image to become a curved or twisted shape. Consequently, it has been difficult for a user unaccustomed to CPR images to determine in which direction the longitudinal section represented by the CPR image is sectioned at each position of a tubular tissue.
In view of the circumstances described above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a diagnosis assisting apparatus and method that allows easy understanding of positional relationship between a longitudinal section represented by a CPR image and the tubular tissue. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a computer readable recording medium on which is recorded a program for causing a computer to function as the diagnosis assisting apparatus.